Tailfin snatching
by FoxtrotTango543
Summary: One day, Snotlout thinks that stealing Toothless' tailfin would be a pretty cool idea, especially if it went to plan. However, Snotlout finds out the hard way that stealing from a Night Fury has its drawbacks.


Disclaimer: I don't own How To Train Your Dragon, and knowing my luck, I probably never will. All rights go to the author of the books, Cressida Cowell and the company that made the much-loved films and series, Dreamworks. This was set in the Dragons: Riders of Berk series.

* * *

"What are you waiting for, Snotlout? You said you'd do it," Tuffnut jeered. His eyes sparkled with the possibility of being involved in chaos-causing mischief and having dirt on Snotlout. Ruffnut sported a similar look on her own face.

"You always said that you were the tough one. You've talked the talk. Now let's see you walk the walk," Ruffnut instructed. "All you have to do is sneak up on Toothless, take his tailfin and run like Hel. It's so simple even you could understand."

"I know what to do, I just need to figure out the best way for me to do it," Snotlout explained, sweat trickling down the side of his face. "I'm going in. If anything goes wrong, cover me."

"Yeah, yeah, whatever," Tuffnut yawned, getting out a bowl of peanuts to share with his sister.

Snotlout crept up on Toothless quietly and slowly, not wanting to wake the Night Fury, especially after he'd overheard Hiccup telling Astrid that Toothless was a very light sleeper. Snotlout didn't want to see if that was true, so he took very light steps towards the dragon. Besides, he only had to run _away_ from the dragon, not _towards_ him.

Finally, he reached his prize, shining under Berk's sun like it meant for Snotlout and Snotlout alone. Toothless' typical red tailfin was calling him, pleading with him to yank it off Toothless' tail and run with it. And who was Snotlout to ignore a call like that?

He allowed his hands to inch further and further towards his crimson target. He couldn't believe he was about to get away with it. It felt too good to be true.

That was mainly because it really _was_ too good to be true.

The moment Snotlout lay a finger on the prosthetic, Toothless' green eyes snapped open. His pupils narrowed and he started growling. Snotlout had been caught. Forget about the prize, now he just had to run. Out of all the things he wanted to (or expected to) deal with today, an angry Night Fury wasn't one of them. He turned and ran for his life, counting on the fact that Toothless couldn't fly without Hiccup in order to get himself out of there.

Such a shame Snotlout forgot that Toothless' inability to fly on his own had nothing to do with his legs.

Toothless pounced on Snotlout, easily dragging him back into the fight. Snotlout saw it as a second chance. He could use this moment to snatch the tailfin right off Toothless' tail and make the unholy offspring of lightning and death itself look foolish! He jumped on his prize, frantically trying to pry it off Toothless' tail and run away before he was eaten. But the straps and buckles were too strong, and soon, he felt the ground leave him. Toothless had lifted his tail up and started shaking him off, but Snotlout clung on like a weed to soil. Eventually, he let go, and he was thrown into the air, much to the twins' amusement.

"Mash him, Toothless!" Tuffnut cheered.

"I knew Snotlout would end up as collateral damage," Ruffnut sighed, catching a peanut in her mouth.

Snotlout let out a high-pitched, embarrassingly feminine squeal as he was thrown in the air by Toothless' tail, and whimpered as he fell back down from the (not yet debunked) force of gravity. But the moment he felt himself make even the slightest dent onto Toothless' skin, he was unceremoniously hurled back into the air again . . . and again . . . and again. Finally, Snotlout realized something that both infuriated and humiliated him. Toothless was tormenting him in an effort to make him lose his mind . . . and was really enjoying it, too! The Night Fury seemed to be smirking as he tossed Snotlout higher and higher into the air. He groaned as he felt the ground leave him once again. Why did he do this? He knew the twins weren't to be trusted, and this was proof! He wished, between throws, that nobody would see him in this state.

* * *

Toothless had been having a perfectly good nap before Snotlout crept up on him and ruined him. The anger of having his nap interrupted was adequately fuelled by the initial shame of being caught off guard by a human as puny and as stupid as Snotlout, but even Thornado would have to agree that this was pretty good revenge. Snotlout's screaming reminded him of the human hatchlings that kept hanging around Hiccup for dragon training advice . . . but in their defence, they weren't as squeaky as Snotlout was. The unholy offspring of lightning and death itself made a mental note to tease Hookfang about his wimpy rider. Then he saw the twins watching with the food the humans called peanuts, and he was confused. But he understood pretty quickly. Ruffnut and Tuffnut were saving some for Snotlout once Toothless let him go and recover! Yeah, that made total sense! But if they were saving some for their wounded warrior, why were they eating it all?

Never mind. They'd probably get him some more once he'd had his fun. And speaking of fun, the stuff Snotlout said every time Toothless threw him up into the air was hilarious!

"Odin have mercy!" Snotlout screamed as he was thrust into the air. "May the Valkyries of Valhalla come to Berk to save me! I'll do anything to make this stop! Anything!" Toothless just rolled his eyes before tossing him like a pancake. Suddenly, Toothless' ears pricked up as he heard his favourite human's voice.

"And in here you have the only Night Fury known to man and possibly the last of his kind, my dragon, Toothless!" Hiccup happily presented to a posse of excited pre-adolescent Vikings, oblivious to the situation he was about to walk into. "Don't make too much noise, as he usually takes a nap around this time and - OH MY GODS!"

Hiccup clapped a hand to his mouth in shock as Snotlout was being thrown in the air like a toy. The children he was with burst into laughter at the scene. "Hiccup! Thank the gods you're here! PLEASE CALL HIM OFF!" Snotlout sobbed, as Toothless played a game with himself to see how high up he could get Snotlout to be.

"Toothless! Let go of him!" Hiccup ordered, and out of respect for Hiccup, Toothless obeyed, letting Snotlout's limp, exhausted body slide to the floor after he landed on Toothless' tail one last time. "Toothless, you'd better have a very good explanation for what I just witnessed." Toothless pointed to Snotlout with one claw, then pointed to his tail. He tried to draw the link between the two, but Hiccup wasn't making a connection. "Toothless, what does that mean? I have no idea what you're doing." His army of protégées tried to succeed where their master had failed.

"Was he trying to check it for damage?"

"Were you playing?"

"Maybe it was stuck and Snotlout was trying to help Toothless take it off so it wouldn't hurt him!"

"That's ridiculous!"

"You're ridiculous!"

Amidst all the shouting and arguing, Toothless had gotten bored and decided to give them a hint. He burned a picture of his prosthetic tailfin on the wall, making them gasp with shock. Hiccup wasn't surprised, but he didn't see how it helped matters.

A small girl with black hair had pushed herself to the front. "Maybe he was trying to take the prosthetic tailfin off Toothless when he was sleeping, and Toothless didn't like it, so he was trying to get Snotlout off him before he took his tailfin away? But after he stopped, he decided to teach Snotlout a lesson, so he's throwing and catching Snotlout all the time."

Toothless tackled her to the ground lavishing her in licks as the little girl squirmed and laughed. Hiccup finally got it. Toothless was happy because she'd been the one to get it right! "He snuck up on you while he was sleeping, didn't he?" he asked. Toothless looked up, nodded, and went back to licking the kid he now personally referred to as 'the smart girl'.

"Well, I'll have to talk to him about that later," Hiccup sighed. "But you can't throw him around like that. And get off the poor girl, she's covered in dragon drool and now I'll have to explain this to her parents since this stuff doesn't wash out. And I should know; I've tried." Toothless snickered and gave him a big sloppy lick to the face, making the children laugh. "You'll never stop doing that, will you?"

Toothless shook his head happily, before starting a game of dragon tag that spanned the whole arena, with all the children carefully stepping over Snotlout. Hiccup knew when he was defeated, and eventually joined in. It turned out to be a pretty fun game, even though Toothless had a significant advantage due to him being a dragon.

* * *

The aftermath of that day was as follows:

Snotlout was in deep trouble for attempting to steal Toothless' tailfin, receiving a long lecture from Hiccup about how delicate the structure of Toothless' prosthetic tailfin is and how badly damaged it could have been from Snotlout's inane prank. However, Snotlout left without a punishment, as Hiccup figured that the experience Toothless put him through was punishment enough.

The other villagers soon heard about Snotlout's encounter with Toothless, and the next week or so was dedicated to taunting him. Snotlout blamed the twins for it, but nobody believed him. Besides, he had a track record for all things stupid, and for once, Ruffnut and Tuffnut seemed to have nothing to do with it.

Toothless still ended up in some trouble, his sanction being a strict diet of limpets for two weeks, per Hiccup's orders. Shame he didn't notice his dragon training apprentices slipping him cod and haddock literally behind his back. But if one thing was achieved from it all, it was that nobody dared touch Toothless' flying gear ever again. The punishment wasn't worth the risk.


End file.
